Fred Katerere – Mozambique

My Journey With Gender Links

I have been a journalist since 1990 and I have worked in four countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. I have covered politics, business, social and scientific issues affecting some of the region’s countries.

I decided to freelance in 2007 and I have since been a correspondent for international organisations which include the Agence France Presse (AFP) and Bloomberg News.

I have also written for Pan African media such as the France-based Africa Report, The Africa Confidential, Panos London and the Al Jazeera’s English service among others.

I started writing for the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service in 2007. Since then, apart from contributing to the service, I have also contributed to the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence as well as the “I” Stories.

After getting involved with Gender Links, I have been able to gain the urge to balance my sourcing on grounds of gender.

In the same way, I learnt to avoid sexist titles in my stories such as using spokesperson rather than spokesman or spokeswoman, chairperson rather than chairman or chairwoman.

Although this remains a tall order with most of the organisations that I freelance for, I have managed to reach an understanding with them in using gender-friendly titles. In this way I have also managed to balance my sourcing.

Even when I am doing a story for an economic, political or entertainment publication, I have learnt to spread out my interviews equally among the sexes.

Although at times it’s not as easy as it should be, I have tried to take an extra mile and make my women sources comfortable so that they could be able to speak on issues they might think are for men only.

This has also happened to some men who shy away from speaking on issues they would say are for women.

Working with Gender Links has helped in broadening my horizon as a journalist to see how other media workers across the SADC region treat issues of women sourcing or report on issues such as gender-based violence.

Through the reports that Gender Links posts on its website and the stories from writers from other countries, I have learnt to understand how gender issues are tackled throughout the region.

For me, Gender Links has been a wall-less classroom which has equipped me with vast knowledge on issues most people take for granted.

I think that as Gender Links celebrates its 10 years, there is not only a need to look at successes or failures but also at improving the service to be more user-friendly and to incorporate as much people as possible.

As statistics on the literacy rates from most countries of the region indicate that more than half of the population are not conversant in the official languages of SADC, Gender Links need to find a way to have its messages through.

There is a need to introduce services or publications in indigenous languages of the regions in order to widen the net of beneficiaries.

Fred Katerere is a Mozambican freelance journalist based in the capital, Maputo.